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HEROES OF MIGHT & MAGIC 3 : HINTS version 1.2
02/10/99
By King Hiss < king_hiss@hotmail.com >
Copyright 1999 King Hiss
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Towns
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1. Dungeon's Portal of Summoning
The Dungeon's Portal of Summoning acts as another dwelling. For the
first week, the creatures generated are from the last external dwelling
flagged on the world map. From the second week onwards, the creatures
generated are from a random external dwelling that you have flagged on
the world map. Therefore, if you are using the Dungeon army, you
should be choosy of what you flag on the world map, so as to use this
Portal of Summoning effectively.
2. Rampart's Dwarven Treasury
The Rampart's Dwarven Treasury generates 10% interest on gold at the
start of every week. Therefore, it may be better to hold out buying
some units or structures that you do not actually need near the end of
the week so that the 10% interest would be MUCH bigger.
3. Inferno's Castle Gate
The Inferno's Castle Gate is especially useful for defending your
Inferno towns if you have more than one Inferno town on the map. If
one of the towns is in danger of being attacked by an enemy hero and
your heroes are not able to rush back in time to save it, you can
simply recruit another hero, use the Castle Gate to zip to all the
Inferno towns you have and purchase as much units as you can get (in
addition to getting the +1 to Attack from the Order of Fire and the
collective spells from all the towns' Mage Guilds), then return to the
first town to await the enemy.
4. Placing heroes inside town garrison
One thing that I've noticed many people did not know is that you can
station a hero inside the town garrison to defend the town just by
clicking the hero's picture and then clicking on the banner of the
garrison inside the town. This hero will not be visible on the world
map and thus cannot move. This way, you can recruit more heroes than
the maximum number of 8 heroes allowed. You can also use this method
if you have 2 heroes needing to use 1 town on the same turn to refuel
their spell points. Simply click 1 inside the town garrison and then
have the other hero enter. Wait 1 turn and the next turn, both heroes'
spell points will be back to maximum.
5. Defensive Fortress
The Fortress is arguably the worst town in the game. Overall, the
units are not as effective compared to the units of the other classes
and its sole ranged unit the lizardmen are pretty useless. Its Mage
Guild can only be upgraded to level 3. However, the Fortress is quite
good in defensive capabilities. Its dragonflies are among the fastest
units in the game, thereby giving you the opportunity to cast a spell
before your opponent. Its gorgons can withstand a lot of punishment.
You can also build the Glyphs of Fear and the Blood Obelisk, which
improves the garrison hero's attack and defense by 2 each. The
Fortress's moat is two hexagons wide instead of one. Other towns' moat
are only one hexagon wide (not to include the Stronghold which don't
have any moat).
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World Map
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1. Free boat using Summon Boat spell
You can get a free boat even if there is no boat or shipyard available
on the world map. Simply have your Water Magic skill at Advanced or
Expert level as well as the spell Summon Boat. Then, cast this spell
near the water and a boat will pop out of nowhere for your use, without
cost to resources (except the mana points used to cast the spell).
2. Using Fly, Dimension Door or Town Portal spell
The three abovementioned spells are movement-based magic on the world
map. Although similar, they have different uses. The Fly spell should
be used if you have many movement points but more limited mana points.
On the other hand, the Dimension Door spell, which can be cast up to a
maximum of four times per day with Expert Air magic, uses more of mana
points than movement points. Therefore, you can still move a bit after
the spell has been cast. At Basic Water magic, the Town Portal spell
sends you to the nearest friendly town. If this town is occupied by a
hero already, the spell fails. This spell is useful in that no matter
how far the nearest town is, the spell would take you there
instantaneously. However, remember to position your hero closer to the
town you wish to go to as compared to other friendly town or your hero
would be send to the wrong town. When cast at Advanced and/or Expert
level, you will be transported to the town of your choice, not the
nearest town like Basic level.
3. Movement based on slowest creature unit
The amount of movement points which you have on the world map is not
only based on your Logistics or Pathfinding skills or the artifacts you
picked up. It can also be reduced based on the slowest creature unit
in your army. Therefore, if you want to move fast, you may wish to
consider dropping some of the slowest units in your army.
4. Raising skeletons
When playing as the Necromancer, you can raise skeletons from enemies
you have defeated. It is also possible for your Necromancer to raise
the upgraded model, the skeleton warriors. To do this, you must not
have any skeletons in your Necromancer's army. One of the units must
be skeleton warriors and there must not be any empty slots in your
Necromancer's army. With these requirements fulfilled, you will get
skeleton warriors every time your Necromancer defeated his enemies.
5. Training various magic skills
Initially, I thought that the various magic skills such as Air, Water,
Earth and Fire are useless skills compared to the other skills which
you can learn, such as Offense and Logistics. I also did not upgrade
my Mage Guilds beyond Level 2 or use much spells except the Lightning
Bolt spell. However, I later found out that spells can become quite
powerful if you have the corresponding magic skill, not just in the
strength of the spell but also in the spell having extra effects. It
is not possible to list all the extra effects here so you should
experiment for yourself. You can actually win a battle against a much
superior army using magic alone. One basic example is that in the
first round, with Expert Earth magic, you can slow the enemy down to a
crawl using the Slow spell, enough time for you to pummel them with
ranged attacks and other magic. Most of enchantment type spells (like
Bloodlust, Slow, Cure) can target multiple targets at Expert level.
Therefore, Bloodlust at Expert level become Mass Bloodlust (target all
friendly creatures at once).
6. Defeating Steadwick
This tip is for those playing the campaign game, the scenario whereby
you have to capture the city of Steadwick, guarded by the super-powered
General Kendal. He is VERY powerful, with loads of units and stats
that make your most powerful hero look like a wimp. However, the
objective of the scenario is to CAPTURE Steadwick, not defeat Kendal.
Therefore, for those of you who does not wish to spent months (game-
time) building a few big armies to defeat this powerhouse, do the
following. First, train up one of your heroes in speed (Expert
Logistics, movement enhancing artifacts, no slow creature in the army).
Then, after defeating the last garrison before your hero arrived at
Steadwick, have one of your other expendable heroes move close to
Steadwick, just enough so that General Kendal will use up nearly all
his movement points to come forward and make mincemeat of this hero.
Have your speedy hero stand somewhere behind, just out of reach of
Kendal. By the way, there is also a Castle nearby with stables which
can make him even faster. He does not even need much troops (just give
him one Champion is enough). Wait one turn and Kendal would bring ALL
his troops from Steadwick just to kill your expendable hero. However,
if you followed the above conditions correctly, he would not be able to
attack your speedy hero or get back to Steadwick before expending his
movement points. When it is your turn to act, simply move your speedy
hero into the unprotected city and you have won!
7. No movement penalty
An army made up of only units native to the same terrain will not
suffer any movement penalty when traversing its native terrain (eg. a
Witch with only Fortress units has no movement penalty when traveling
on swampland).
8. Bonus campaign
After you have completed all 6 campaigns, there will be one bonus
campaign, "Seeds of Discontent", which takes place after the war with
the Necromancers. Here, you take the part of Faruk Welnin, a man who
wish to free the Contested Lands from both AvLee and Erathia. To get
this bonus campaign, just load your latest save game after you watch
the final movie.
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Battles & Spells
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1. Creature unit's special ability
One important feature to note in Heroes 3 is that many creature units
have their own special abilities. I will be discussing some of the
units' special abilities but for those not discussed, you can right-
click on the unit's picture and read about it yourself. Learning about
what each creature can do and applying it will greatly enhance your
gameplay.
2. Creature spells
Some creature units can cast their own spells, such as the genie's
random beneficial spell and the ogre mage's Bloodlust spell. If you
have these creatures in your army and some empty slots, you can
separate these creatures and thus cast as much spells in one round as
you are able to split up your genie or ogre mage units, eg. if you have
3 empty slots and some ogre magi, you can split them up and place them
in the 3 empty slots. Now, you will be able to cast Bloodlust 4 times
in one round! You only need one creature per slot to do this!
3. Using Behemoths
A good way to use Behemoths or Ancient Behemoths is to have your hero
learn the Tactics skill (which the barbarian class seems to learn
easily). At the start of the battle, move your Behemoths as close to
the enemy as possible. Then, start the battle. Except for faster
enemy creatures, your Behemoths will usually be able to move first.
Just move him over to the enemy and attack. Because of the Behemoth's
ability to reduce the defense of the creatures it is attacking, you can
severely damage the creatures you are attacking. A very powerful first
strike indeed!
4. Waiting for enemy to get close before shooting at them
For creatures with ranged attacks, there is a difference between a
broken arrow and an unbroken arrow when you move the cursor over your
enemy creatures. An unbroken arrow definitely causes more damage to
the creatures than a broken arrow. Therefore, it is usually best for
your ranged creatures to use the "wait" feature for a non-ranged enemy
creature unit to move closer first before shooting.
5. Creatures with no retaliation to attack first
Many creatures, eg, naga queens, vampire lords, have the ability of no
retaliation to their attacks. Therefore, against very powerful enemy
units, it is best for these creatures to act first before the other
units (but if possible after the ranged units). Then, have one of your
more powerful units attack after that. This way, you can minimise your
damage.
6. Dendroids
Dendroid soldiers have the ability to entangle the unit it is
attacking. If the enemy unit is entangled, it cannot move until the
dendroid moves or is attacked by another unit.
7. Armageddon spell
This is a level 4 spell that is very powerful. The offset is that it
affects all creatures on the battlefield, regardless of friend or foe.
However, there are certain creatures which can counter this problem.
Gold and black dragons are immune to at least level 4 spells and efreet
sultans and fire elementals are immune to fire magic. Thus, you can go
into battle against a much superior army with just these creatures and
cast Armageddon spell to your heart's content, causing enormous damage
to the enemy without suffering any yourself!
8. Selecting heroes
Whenever you wish to hire heroes from taverns, you are given the choice
of 2 heroes. Sometimes, you may not want either of the heroes, either
because their race is incompatible with your castles or because they
have very lousy specialty skills (eg. Navigation in most scenarios).
Therefore, you can try restarting the scenario if you are just
beginning or save and then reload the game on the seventh day of the
week. See what heroes you can hire the next round and if you are not
satisfied with them, just reload the game. However, some heroes appear
less often than others. Some good heroes (in my opinion) include Sir
Christian (start with ballista) and Solymr (Chain Lightning specialty).
9. Vampire lords attacking low level units
Vampire lords have the ability of no retaliation and also of
regeneration. Therefore, it is quite an effective unit to use, as
while attacking an enemy, it also sucks the energy from it and
transfers the energy into itself. This allows it to restore lost
health points, and even to revive those within the unit which have
already be killed. This can be used most effectively against weak
units that are numerous in numbers. This only applies to "living"
creatures, so it does not work on Gargoyles, Golems, and all
Elementals.
10. Cyclops against castle walls
The Cyclops and Cyclops kings have the ability to knock down castle
walls during siege battle on castles. This will help very much if you
need to get your troops into the castle quickly but do not have
sufficient ballistic power. You can also use them to aim for the
damaging castle archers.
11. Dragon flies to dispel beneficial spells
Besides being one of the fastest units in the game, dragon flies have
the ability to dispel any beneficial spells cast on enemy troops, eg.
Bless, Prayer. Just attack the enemy unit as per normal.
12. Some creatures can be positioned to damage more than 1 unit
Some creatures can attack more than one adjacent enemy. These include
the hydra and the cerebrus hound. Therefore, with some smart
positioning, you can go in-between 2 enemy units whenever there is a
chance and do damage to both the enemy units. These attacks cannot be
retaliated.
13. Champions' charging bonus
The champions have their attack statistic increased when charging at
and attacking an enemy unit in the same round. The further away from
the enemy unit at the start of the round, the higher the increase in
attack. The distance is measured by the squares of the battle terrain.
When attacking an enemy unit, it is therefore best to move your
champions all the way around him to take advantage of this ability.
14. No melee penalty for medusas and evil eyes
The Dungeon class is perhaps overall the most powerful class in the
game. Besides the black dragons, it have two ranged units, the medusas
and evil eyes, which are quite powerful and numerous for low level
units. Both units do not suffer any penalty for close combat fighting.
Furthermore, the medusa may actually benefit from close combat as then,
it has the additional ability of stone curse.
15. Death Ripple and Destroy Undead spells
Both the Death Ripple and Destroy Undead spells are spells that affect
multiple units. The Death Ripple spell affects all living units on the
battle screen (subject to the unit's magic resistance) while the
Destroy Undead spell affects all Undead (Necropolis) units. While the
damage caused to each unit initially is not much, you can upgrade the
respective magic skills to cause more damage. Just be careful of your
own units as they can also be damaged by the spell if they are of the
same type as the targeted units. The Destroy Undead spell is
especially useful in the campaign "Song for the Father" as nearly all
the foes you face are undead.
16. Sacrificing weak troops by putting them beside powerful ranged
units, forcing them to attack
Some of the ranged units can be very damaging on your units. In some
circumstances, you may want to stop the ranged units from shooting at
your vital units, usually your own ranged units, but your only unit
closest to the enemy is so weak that it is bound to die by the
retaliatory attack if you use it to attack the ranged unit. The enemy
unit would then still be able to shoot at your vital units. In this
case, you should consider sacrificing this unit to save your vital
units from being cut down. Just move your weak unit to stand beside
the enemy ranged unit but DO NOT attack it. In this way you will force
it to act by moving away or killing your weak unit and thereby losing
its opportunity to shoot. This allows your own ranged units to attack
and your hero to cast a spell at the enemy ranged unit with less
casualties suffered.
17. Chain Lightning spell
The Chain Lightning spell is a rather useful spell in that it can
inflict good damage on multiple units in one turn. The downside of
this spell is that it does not discriminate between friend or foe. No
matter how many enemy units are on the screen, it would still inflict
damage to four units (five if your Air Magic skill is at Advanced
level), including your own units if they are closer to the targeted
unit or there are less than four (or five) enemy units. Therefore, you
may hesitate in using this spell then. There is one way to still use
this spell in the mentioned situations. For some people, before
engaging powerful enemy heroes or wandering monsters in battle, they
would usually save the game first so that after the battle, they can
review the fight and reload the game again so as to fight again and
thereby reduce the damage caused. You can use this to reload the game
and before engaging the enemy unit, split up one creature from one of
your troops. It is best if he can move fast. When you need to use the
Chain Lightning spell, position him in such a way that when you use it
the next round, the only casualty in your army is the lone creature.
This would greatly reduce the general damage suffered by your units.
18. Using Fire Wall spell for certain terrain
During battle, the Fire Wall spell is best use in terrain where there
are obstacles in the way, such as a ridge, which forces more than one
enemy unit to move a specific route. Cast the Fire Wall right in the
path of the advancing enemy units. In this way, the enemy units cannot
avoid going around the Fire Wall to bypass it. Take note that it
should only be used against walking units and not flying ones. Another
way to use this is to place the Fire Wall right in front of your ranged
unit if it appears that the enemy wants to concentrate on it and have
more than one unit moving towards it.
19. Against elementals, use vulnerable magic
When fighting against elementals, you should use classes of magic which
it is more vulnerable to. Check the description of the elemental unit
to find out which class of magic to use against which type of
elementals.
20. Against golems, avoid using magic
Golems, especially obsidian golems, are very resistant to magic.
Unless you have no other choice, avoid using magic against them.
21. Advanced Resurrection spell
The Resurrection spell is very useful at Advanced level. The creature
units that you resurrect will stay with you even after the battle. At
Normal level, your resurrected units can only be used for the battle
and will disappear after that.
22. Using Scholar skill
The Scholar skill is used to trade spells between heroes. You need
only one of them to have the skill. This skill is very useful in
having all your heroes learn up to level 4 spells of all of them
combined without having spend time visiting all the castles. The best
way to trade spells is to have the hero with the Scholar skill click on
each hero from one end of the map to the other end, and then back
again.
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Acknowledgements
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The following fellows have shared with me some of the hints that I have
mentioned above:
Guy, Blitz, City Hunter.
And also special thanks to Stephanus Rudiyanto Natari for pointing out
some extra info and correction to this work.
Thanks, guys!